Control elements that acquire a movement through electromagnetic interaction are robust as well as easy and inexpensive to manufacture, since they have no keys that would have to be able to reproducibly move between a resting position and switching position. This also makes them interesting for use in motor vehicles.
However, one disadvantage to control elements without mechanically moveable components is that a user cannot recognize whether a surface touched by the user was perceived by the control element since the surface does not yield in response to the touch. DE 10 2008 046 102 A1 (also published as US 2010/060437) proposes a solution to this disadvantage by providing a control element furnishing a trim or molded part of a vehicle interior with one or more sensor elements and oscillator coils or exciters. The oscillator coils excite the trim or molded parts to vibrate or oscillate when contact by a sensor element has been acquired. To enable a user in a driving vehicle to perceive these oscillations, they must be strong enough to be differentiated from the oscillations caused by the moving vehicle. This requires a relatively large, strong oscillator coil.